MC, the No. 2 seed, advances to Saturday's section title game against top seed El Cerrito (13-0). Game time is 7 p.m. at Pinole Valley High.

"I'm exhausted," Marin Catholic coach Mazi Moayed said. "It feels like we just played four games instead of four quarters."

Shrugging off a slew of early miscues, the Wildcats suddenly found their stride late in the third quarter.

Quarterback Jared Goff engineered a near eight-minute scoring drive to close out the third quarter and Akili Terry took touchdown honors with a 1-yard plunge.

The previously porous MC defense started making stops. The Cardinals went three-and-out on their next possession. Six plays later, Goff galloped into the end zone on a 17-yard run and the Wildcats were within three, trailing 31-28.

The Cardinals, who were clicking off first downs with ease in the first half, suddenly couldn't buy one. They went three-and-out again and the Wildcats smelled blood.

Terry ripped off a 27-yard run and Goff hooked up with Celis on the next play for 35 yards and a touchdown, giving MC its first lead of the game 35-31 with 4:11 remaining in the game.

On Cardinal Newman's next play from scrimmage, MC middle lineback Alex Poksay picked off a pass, setting up Terry's game-sealing 16-yard run around the right side for a touchdown.

"On that interception, I give all the credit to the defensive line," Poksay said. "Henry Baylor was bearing down on the quarterback and had his hands in his face."

Despite a shaky start that saw him throw two interceptions in his first four attempts, Goff — as usual — put up impressive numbers, completing 19-of-29 passes for 261 yards.

"We never lost our composure even when things weren't going well," Goff said. "The defense picked it up big time in the second half. They've been our rock all season. I went up to Alex (Poksay) in the third quarter and told him, 'Now it's your turn to make a play.' He got the interception right after that."

Terry more than made up for an early and costly fumble, rushing for 146 yards and three touchdowns.

Colton Hanley and Andrew Celis had seven receptions each and both scored a touchdown.

"Coach Mazi (Moayed) has been emphasizing composure and heart all season," Celis said. "Today, we definitely had to keep our composure and play with a lot of heart."

The Wildcats were just not very good in the early going against a Cardinal Newman squad that seemed to gain momentum with each passing moment of the first quarter.

Marin Catholic turned the ball over five times for the game, including an unheard of three interceptions by quarterback Jared Goff.

"I threw three picks. I wasn't the player of the game," Goff said.

After MC running back Akili Terry lost a fumble midway through the first quarter, Cardinals quarterback Keaton Dunsford flipped a swing pass to Phillip Wright who broke tackle after tackle and rambled 24 yards for a touchdown.

Cardinal Newman (11-2) led 17-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The cat-napping Wildcats stirred at times in the second quarter. Terry had a 2-yard run for a touchdown to erase the zero on the scoreboard, but Cardinal Newman answered right back with a 72-yard touchdown pass from Dunsford to Jacob Webb and regained a 17-point lead.

The Wildcats finally got things going with a 17-play scoring drive, capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Goff to Colton Hanley just before the half.

Marin Catholic's slowly changing fortunes were buoyed by an unfortunate injury to Cardinal Newman's star linebacker/running back Phillip Wright, who left the game in the second quarter.

"We think he broke his fibula," said Cardinal Newman coach Paul Cronin. "It was a tough loss for us, but it's part of football — guys get injured."

Even after the second half started, the Wildcats gave no indication they were ready for a reversal. In fact, after wide receiver Andrew Celis lost a fumble following a first-down catch, the Cardinals scored again and led 31-14 with 8:46 remaining in the third quarter.